In commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,740 there has been disclosed a system for the guidance of such molded articles ejected into a gap between a pair of separated mold portions, especially substantially flat articles such as shallow cups or flanged lids. The articles, formed in shallow cavities of one mold portion around cores carried on the opposite mold portion, are extracted from their cavities by adhering to the cores when the mold is opened; they are then removed from the cores by a stripper plate and are guided in their descent by lateral rails which flank the mold cores and are transversely movable so as to be more widely spaced apart in the mold-closed position in order not to interfere with the molding process. The first-mentioned mold portion, containing the cavities, is recessed to accommodate the spaced-apart rails when the mold is closed.
Though the system described and claimed in the prior patent is useful in a number of instances, its relative complexity limits its utilization. Moreover, some molded articles do not lend themselves to extraction from a mold cavity on a receding core and thus must be dislodged by conventional ejection pins or the like.